Latest news with #LordKitchener
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
The £2 coin worth an incredible £1,000 if it has an error
An expert shared exactly how to spot this valuable error coin An expert has urged people to keep an eye out for a rare £2 coin that could be worth £1,000. This piece, from 2014, is highly sought after by collectors due to a specific error. The coin was created to commemorate the start of the First World War. On its reverse (the tail side) it features the image of Lord Kitchener, the former British Secretary of State for War. While this may be 'easy to spot' in your change, it is only particularly valuable if it has the error. An expert, known online as the Coin Collecting Wizard, explained: 'The Lord Kitchener £2 coin from 2014 is easy to spot with its bold 'your country needs you' design. 'And most of them are only worth £2 but there's a rare error version that collectors go crazy for.' This error can be found on the obverse of the coin (the head side). He continued: 'On the Queen's side the words 'two pounds' are supposed to be there but on some they're completely missing. 'his little mistake turns an ordinary coin into something worth over £1,000. 'So next time you're checking your change take a proper look, you might just be holding a small fortune without even knowing it. Just remember it's only the rare mule error that's worth serious money - that means the coin must be completely missing the 'two pounds' wording on the Queen's side. 'If your coin has the full design with £2 clearly shown then it's just the standard version and worth exactly that, £2.' He issued a warning: 'Don't get caught out by listings online trying to sell the regular ones for silly prices, it's the error that makes the difference.' In February last year a misprinted Lord Kitchener £2 coin sold for a staggering £1,000 at auction. Prior to being sold it was authenticated by the Royal Mint, according to This Money. There have only been two reports of these error coins being found in circulation. Lockdales Auctioneers officiated the sale of one back in March 2020 to the value of £500.
Daily Mirror
06-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Look out for these 5 coins in circulation worth over £3,000
You may not realise you could have a small fortune sitting in your wallet or coin jar. An expert has urged Brits to check their change for five of the rarest UK coins still in circulation. Collectively, these coins could be worth over £3,000 to collectors. When paying with cash, many of us are happy to use up whatever change we've got in our wallets or pockets without a second glance. However, it could be worth double-checking before parting with certain coins due to their potential value. In a video uploaded to social media platform TikTok, an expert who is known online as the Coin Collecting Wizard explained exactly what to look for. 'Most valuable coins you can find in your change revealed,' he said. The first coin he mentioned was a 50 pence piece from 2009. This coin features the image of the iconic pagoda at Kew Gardens on its reverse (tail) side. He said: 'Let's start with a 50 pence coin and of course it is the 2009 Kew Gardens 50p. This coin is so hard to find with only 210,000 ever released and is worth around £140 today.' Another 50p collectors 'want to get their hands on' is known as the Atlantic salmon. This coin is dated 2023. He continued: 'Even less were released than the Kew at 200,000. And if you find one of these in your change, you are looking at around £80.' However, it is only versions of this coin that is missing a tiny mark that is particularly sought after. 'But remember, it's only the one without a privy mark dated 2023 that is rare and valuable,' he said. Far more valuable is a specific £2 coin with an error. The expert said: 'Now, let's move on to a £2 coin and this one is known as the Lord Kitchener.' Minted in 2014 to mark 100 years since the start of the First World War, this piece features the image of Lord Kitchener on its reverse. To be particularly valuable it needs to be missing the words 'two pounds' on its heads side. The expert said this could make it worth more than £1,000. He then moved on to a 2p coin with an incredible value of £2,000. He said: 'This is the 'new pence' two pence coin from 1983 and whilst it is unlikely you would find this in your change, it is possible.' Instead of reading 'two pence' on its reverse side, it says 'new pence'. The Coin Collecting Wizard said: 'This coin from 1983 was in Royal Mint sets and a mistake was made with the words 'new pence' instead of 'two pence'. 'If you find it, keep it because it's valued at around £2,000.' Lastly he revealed that a 20p coin with no date could be valued at £50. He added: 'And finally, let's discuss a 20p coin with no date. If you find a 20 pence which was minted in 2008 but it has no date on the coin, then you have found a rare mule error 20p coin worth around £50.'
Western Telegraph
19-05-2025
- General
- Western Telegraph
Royal Mint's reveals 9 rarest £2 coins in circulation in UK
Included in the Royal Mint's list of the rarest £2 coins in the UK are number of commemorative Commonwealth Games coins from 2002, and a special commemorative First World War coin. While experts have urged everyone to check their change for another First World War inspired coin, which could be worth more than £500. Originally released in 2014 by the Royal Mint, the coin commemorates 100 years since the start of the First World War. The coin shows the face of Lord Kitchener who featured on the 'Your Country Needs You' posters. While a normal version of the coin will be worth no more than its face value of £2, a batch of the coins featured a rare error that boost their value for collectors. On some of the coins the words 'Two Pounds' are missing on the head side of the coin. According to experts at Coin Hunter, 5,720,000 of these coins are still in circulation but it appears to be 'very rare' to find one without a date. It isn't clear exactly how many of coins with an error remain in circulation but the first of its kind sold in March 2020 for £500. Recommended Reading: Coin Hunter experts said on Facebook: "Check your coins that feature Lord Kitchener. "If the heads side does not show 'TWO POUNDS' - you have an error that appears to be very rare." Royal Mint rarest £2 coins These are the 9 rarest £2 coins according to the Royal Mint, and their mintage. A Royal Mint spokesman said: 'It's been 27 years since the first UK £2 coins were struck for circulation, sparking a year of celebrations, but the coin's history actually stretches back to 1986 when the first commemorative UK £2 coin was struck for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. 'This was the first time a sporting event had been commemorated on UK coinage. 'Although these coins have the same diameter as the post-1997 circulating £2 coin, they are single-coloured nickel brass and much heavier.'
Telegraph
17-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Reeves is fiddling with Isas while Rome burns
Your country needs you, said Lord Kitchener's infamous recruitment poster for the Great War. Today, your country wants you to risk not your life, but your savings. We live in an age of economic nationalism, with the pendulum swinging decisively away from the globalist trends of recent decades towards a more inward-looking approach to economic management. It should therefore come as no surprise that the Starmer Government wants to marshal more of the nation's savings to the purpose of specifically British investment. Everyone else does it. Most countries channel a much greater proportion of their savings resources into domestic enterprise than we manage, so why should the UK remain the odd one out? I'll tell you why in a moment. But first a little background. As regular readers of this column will know – I have written about it often enough – low levels of investment are a key economic weakness for the UK. Relative to most other major economies, we consume too much and we save and invest too little. We are particularly poor when it comes to investing in our own country, preferring instead the seemingly higher returns offered by overseas markets – especially the US. If Britain is ever to throw off its productivity slough, it needs to be investing a lot more in its future. For the moment, we are stuck in a self-reinforcing doom-loop of decline, where low levels of investment feed into weak productivity growth, which in turn makes the UK an even less attractive place to invest. Frog-marching British savers into investing in UK plc is a key objective for Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, and it comes in two different forms. One is to strong-arm pension funds into committing a defined minimum of their assets to unlisted, UK equity investment. The other is to either cut the amount of cash that can be invested in individual savings accounts (Isas) – or to abolish cash Isas entirely – in the hope that this might force savers to invest in UK equities instead. This second line of attack also has an ulterior motive, in that it would remove at least some part of the tax shelter cash Isas provide, and will therefore mean that more of the interest earned from holding cash will get taxed. Last week brought some progress in the first of these two approaches. Thanks in part to the intermediation of Alastair King, 17 of the City's biggest defined contribution pension providers have been persuaded to commit at least 10pc of their default funds to unlisted investment – of which at least a half will be in UK unlisted securities. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming into agreeing, with the threat of making it mandatory still hanging like a sword of Damocles above their heads should they fall short. But let's not be curmudgeonly about it. Cajoling companies as big as Aviva and Legal & General to lay aside their concerns over breach of fiduciary duty is a significant achievement. Sadly, it's also hardly transformational. Total pension fund assets within the scope of this new, so-called Mansion House Accord, amount to £252bn – leaving the sums to be devoted to the sort of UK infrastructure, clean energy and business start-up investment the Government wants pursued at 'just' £12.5bn. This is not to be sneezed at. But in the context of total UK business investment of around £300bn annually, barely touches the sides. What's more, the far bigger pool of UK savings in now almost entirely closed final salary pension schemes is left untouched by the new accord. That's in part because these funds are required for a still higher purpose – supporting the national debt. Indeed, these so-called defined benefit pension schemes are far and away the biggest single source of buying in the UK gilts market. Without their demand, the Government would struggle to fund itself at current interest rates. This makes the Treasury particularly wary of meddling in the plethora of liability matching rules and regulations that force final salary pension funds to max out on government debt. It's an unhealthily symbiotic relationship in which the one relies on the other, and in itself goes some way to explaining Britain's shamefully poor investment record. With public indebtedness swelling from around 20pc of national income 30 years ago to 100pc today, private investment has been all but crowded out. The nation's savings have flowed into public debt instead. What is more, in terms of improvement in the nation's productive capacity, we have virtually nothing to show for it. Nearly all the money raised has been flushed down the drain of current consumption. In return, pension funds have received a growing mountain of Treasury IOUs. Liability for pensioner entitlements has in effect been loaded onto future generations of taxpayers. Thanks to higher interest rates, Britain's defined benefit pension schemes mercifully find themselves back in balance once more. It's a God-given opportunity for many of them to start investing in higher return UK equities again. But they need the Government to act to make this happen, and it seems unlikely the Treasury would want to risk such an important source of funding for the UK gilts market by forcing things. There's so much wrong with the pensions and savings market in the UK as it stands that it's hard to know where to start. Getting back to a situation where some 40pc to 50pc of available equity investment goes into domestic equity markets, as occurs in the US and Australia, requires root and branch reform. The voluntary half measures so far announced certainly won't do the trick. They are too timid and too beholden to vested interest – including those of the major savings institutions and the Government itself. Plus, they put the cart before the horse. There's a good reason investors prefer overseas markets to our own, and that's because the UK is an increasingly unattractive place to invest. By whacking up taxes on companies, and by further burdening them with much higher minimum wages and worker protections, the Government has made matters even worse. It's entirely reasonable to expect pension and Isa savers to do more to support the domestic economy given the tax breaks they enjoy. But first there's got to be something worth investing in. State-directed investment is rarely a sound use of money, and it is even less so when the funds are channelled into projects that would otherwise struggle to attract commercial backing. Until the UK investment environment as a whole improves, initiatives such as the Mansion House Accord amount to just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Glasgow Times
17-05-2025
- General
- Glasgow Times
Royal Mint's reveals 9 rarest £2 coins in circulation in UK
Included in the Royal Mint's list of the rarest £2 coins in the UK are number of commemorative Commonwealth Games coins from 2002, and a special commemorative First World War coin. While experts have urged everyone to check their change for another First World War inspired coin, which could be worth more than £500. Originally released in 2014 by the Royal Mint, the coin commemorates 100 years since the start of the First World War. The coin shows the face of Lord Kitchener who featured on the 'Your Country Needs You' posters. While a normal version of the coin will be worth no more than its face value of £2, a batch of the coins featured a rare error that boost their value for collectors. On some of the coins the words 'Two Pounds' are missing on the head side of the coin. According to experts at Coin Hunter, 5,720,000 of these coins are still in circulation but it appears to be 'very rare' to find one without a date. It isn't clear exactly how many of coins with an error remain in circulation but the first of its kind sold in March 2020 for £500. Recommended Reading: Coin Hunter experts said on Facebook: "Check your coins that feature Lord Kitchener. "If the heads side does not show 'TWO POUNDS' - you have an error that appears to be very rare." Royal Mint rarest £2 coins These are the 9 rarest £2 coins according to the Royal Mint, and their mintage. A Royal Mint spokesman said: 'It's been 27 years since the first UK £2 coins were struck for circulation, sparking a year of celebrations, but the coin's history actually stretches back to 1986 when the first commemorative UK £2 coin was struck for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. 'This was the first time a sporting event had been commemorated on UK coinage. 'Although these coins have the same diameter as the post-1997 circulating £2 coin, they are single-coloured nickel brass and much heavier.'
